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DEVELOPMENT OF RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION ATTENDANCE

Reina D. Arenal
Baby Lyn A. Mendiola
Mark Jerald G. Patalinghug

An undergraduate thesis submitted to the faculty of the Information Technology

INTRODUCTION

An attendance has grown into a significant part of the organization or institution,

the validation and insertion of data are done manually. With the largest community of

student and employee, it will be difficult to manage attendance manually. Since there is a

clear correlation relation between the attendance and academic performance. Absenteeism

can cause inadequate learning part of the student. Not only to the student academic

performance, but also to the employee’s efficiency to work (Patel & Gajar, 2012).

Radio Frequency Identification can read the tag using Radio Frequency, meaning that

the RFID reader can be read from a distance, right through your clothes, wallet, backpack

or purse. Besides the RFID tag consist of unique ID for each tag. The technology used in

RFID has been around since the early 1920s. In our country, this technology already been
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used for several years in certain place such as in Highway using card ‘Easy Drive’ and our

government also apply this technology by using RFID as I.C (identification card) (See

Appendix 1 for Fishbone Diagram).

Manual attendance systems put pressure on staff to be correct in all details of their work

at all times. It takes more effort and physical space to keep track of paper documents, to

find information and to keep details secure. When mistakes are made or changes or

corrections are needed, often a manual transaction must be completely redone rather than

just updated. In this project, RFID system was used to record student attendance

automatically and send text messages to the guardian of the students letting them know if

their child entered or left the school. This method is more effective to prevent problem in

process of getting attendance manually. It would save a lot of time and results in accuracy.

Attendance records are kept safe and can be checked easily whenever required (Breitmeyer

R.,2015).

Statement of the Problem

Generally, the study can help the school to improve with the manual monitoring of

attendance.

Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the features of the system that can help the school in managing large

amount of student attendance?

2. What are the hardware and software needed to develop the system?

3. What are the ways to know the quality of the system?

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is to develop a Radio Frequency Identification

Attendance System that can improve the manual attendance monitoring of the schools.

Specifically, it aims to:

1. Design a system with the following features/modules:

a. Manage Student Profile

b. Manage Event Attendance

c. Class Management

d. Create Announcement

e. Manage Account

f. View Attendance Record

g. SMS Module

2. Create the system using the following devices;

a. RFID Contactless Card Reader

b. RFID Tags

c. Server

d. Network Devices

3. Develop the system using the following software;

a) MySQL for database

b) C#

c) PHP

4. Test and evaluate the quality of the device and system using ITD software

Evaluation instrument.
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Significance of the Study

The system provide an instant and automated attendance marking system. Every

authorized student is provided with a unique RFID tag/card with his/her details fed in it.

The system is develop to help the school to do away with the manual register to monitor

the attendance of the students. This study is beneficial to the school, it can help them save

time in recording students attendance, it can also enabled the school administration to

ensure only accredited people access the school premises. This goes a long way in

enhancing the general security within the school. It can also make the announcement of

unplanned events such as cancellation of classes due to typhoon signals, holidays etc. easier

and manageable. Teachers and class advisers can also benefit to the study, they can easily

check quickly and accurately the records of their students attendance in the system through

their accounts. Admin, Registrar and Principal can also access the system also through their

accounts. The students can also benefit to the study, their safety can be ensured by their

parents easily, they can be easily informed by their advisers about their absences and they

can avoid cutting classes that can help them become better in academic performances and

lastly the parents can also benefit to the study, they can be informed easily about their

children entering and leaving the school premises through SMS notification.

Time and Place of the Study

The researchers start the gathering of information from the different stake holders that

involve the system. The researchers gathered information from Cavite State University

Maragondon, Cavite State University Naic and Western Colleges. And some helpful

information from different books, published theses and online sources.

The developing of the system was started from August 2018 to April 2019. System

evaluation was conducted at Cavite State University Maragondon, Cavite State University

Naic and Western Colleges by the selected students, officials and IT experts of the school

(See Appendix 2 for Gantt Chart).

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study focused on developing a device that can help schools manage the attendance

of their students easily compared to the process of getting the attendance manually; it can

save more time and effort for the school. The RFID device can read the information of the

students in their unique chips, information from the chips can flash to the screen and

automatically the system can send text message to the parents of the specific students to

tell that the child was already entered the school or left the school. The system features

consists of Manage Student Profile where teachers, admin, registrar and principal can view

the list of the students of the school. In this feature, they can also add or register new

students. Manage event attendance, upcoming events of the school were created here. Class

Management, time in and time out the students per grade level and section can be seen

here. Create Announcement, announcement that are posted in log in page for the students

to be informed were created here. Manage Account, teachers, admin, registrar and principal

can view their accounts here. View Attendance Record, attendance record of the students

can be seen here, whether it is daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. SMS Module, daily

message alerts can be sent to parents for the time in and time out of students.

The attendance monitoring system is limited only for the students not with the

employees of the school. The study is limited only up to evaluation phase. The faculty of
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the IT Department can process the releasing phase through their technology transfer

program.
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Definition of Terms

In order to enable the readers to understand the study, the meaning of the following

term are given:

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) that uses electromagnetic fields to

automatically identify and track tags attached to objects.

RFID Tags for asset tracking, retail, apparel, file tracking, document management,

supply chain application and more.

RFID Contactless Card Reader is a card in which the chip communicates with

the card reader through an induction technology similar to that of an RFID (at data rates of

106 to 848 kbit/s). A related contactless technology is RFID (radio frequency

identification).

Server a computer program that manages access to a centralized resource or service in

a network.

Local-Area Network (LAN) wires is a computer network that spans a relatively small

area. Most often, a LAN is confined to a single room, building or group of buildings;

however, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines

and radio waves.

MySQL is an open source relational database management system. Because

both MySQL and PHP are both open source (meaning they are free to download and use),

the PHP/MySQL combination has become a popular choice for database-driven websites.

C# a multi-paradigm programming language encompassing strong typing, imperative,

declarative, functional, generic, object oriented, and component oriented programming

disciplines.
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Conceptual Framework of the Study

Based form the objectives and different significant requirements, the researchers

have come up with the conceptual framework shown below.

Input:
Knowledge Based:
 Gather information
about the RFID.
 Existing system
related to the study
 Knowledge in
hardware and IT
infrastructure Process:
 Knowledge in
utilizing RFID,
 Analysis Output:
SMS and Client
server Technology RFID Attendance
 Program Design System with SMS
Software Requirements: Notification
 Coding
 MySql
 C#
 Testing
 Php

Hardware Requirements:

 Laptop
 Printer
 RFID Contactless
Card Reader
 Netwok Devices
 RFID Tags

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the study

Figure 1 shows the inputs that are divided into three categories the knowledge,

software and hardware requirements.

For the software requirements, the researchers will use XAMMP Panel for MySQL

as the database server of information. C# a multi-paradigm programming language

encompassing strong typing, imperative, declarative, functional, generic, object oriented,

and component oriented programming disciplines. PHP, for the creation of SMS module.

Microsoft Office was needed for documentation.

Lastly for the hardware requirements, the researchers will use Radio-frequency

identification that uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags

attached to objects. RFID Tags for asset tracking, retail, apparel, file tracking, document

management, supply chain application and more. HP Laptop. Windows 10 for the

Operating System that will use during development. Printer for printing of the graph.

Processes are the action that will perform to meet the expected output. This involve

the system requirements and software requirements in which the researchers will gather

some of the important information and needed software tools that will use in developing

the system;

The output of the study will be the RFID Attendance System with SMS

Notification.